Northern exposure: Canadian squads take a sample of Oklahoma baseball

Jul. 16—WARNER — The bleachers adjacent to them were empty, though a screenshot of one of their own hung above the top row.

Kyle De Grace, a former Connors State player, was there in the picture.

Home was 1,200 miles away — and in a much cooler place, though they looked like they could have hailed from Austin, donning burnt orange jerseys.

Oklahoma was merely a place to pass through, doing what they do 12 months of the year as part of the Mississauga Tigers HPP — which stands for High Performance Program — a baseball academy based in Ontario, Canada.

Two teams were on a stop among a month-long road trip — Greg Byron's 17-under Tigers and Sean Travers' 16-under Tigers, played the second of four games this weekend and Friday's were simultaneous — Byron's at Connors State and Travers' at Warner High School — as part of the four-day Rusty Fulps Memorial Tournament, the last of three summer showcases for area teams being played at CSC.

The Canadians are part of a pipeline that has led to American colleges, particularly Perry Keith's at Connors. Byron and Travers both spun their organization off the Ontario Blue Jays group that was first connected to Connors through Cowboys assistant Bobby Foreman some 20 years ago.

But there was no blue in these dugouts though.

"Sean went to college in Texas (Texarkana College) and he likes burnt orange, and I can tell you there's no one around our area that has burnt orange, so it definitely makes us stand out," Byron said.

Both coaches played for the Blue Jays youth organization.

Over the years, the scope of baseball in hockey-rich Canada has changed.

"August is our season starting point," Byron said. "We pick the roster, go through instructional camp and then have a fall schedule where we'll play teams in the U.S. in their scrimmage season. Then it's inside our facility from November to February, and our first spring trip is in March. We'll go to Delray Beach, Fla., for spring training, then play our season through June and start our summer travel and spend a month on the road."

It's a contrast with what he and Travers experienced.

"When we first started, all the programs like us operated as teams. All of them now are academies where you have them 12 months a year," Travers said. "High school baseball is not really a thing. You might play 6-7 games in that format. When we're not playing fall or spring, we're working in an indoor facility, which if you're an academy, you have. And that's generated both growth in the numbers and the development of talent."

And it's made it more competitive for recruiters south of the border.

Keith, in his fourth decade of coaching at Connors, has recruited not only Canada but the baseball-rich Caribbean as well, and has been successful in both regions.

Others included George Kottaras, who would wind up on Milwaukee's squad that played in the 2011 National League Championship Series. Jordan Romano, currently the closer for Toronto, is another from that pipeline.

David Mendham, now at Oklahoma State, is one of many who went on to extend college careers.

"It's about building relationships. If you bring kids in and treat them right the families will vouch for you," Keith said. "Guys like DeGrace and these others were all over these kids when they go back home. That's the impression you want to leave. I think we've done a pretty good job of that."

Not every kid winds up at Connors.

Kaleb Thomas, a pitcher, has committed to Missouri State. Something else unique about Thomas is he's the first indigenous player to play for the Canadian program. He lives on the Six Nations Reservation an hour outside Toronto. '

"My parents played baseball, but lacrosse and hockey were the biggest sports on the reservation. I stuck with baseball and had to travel a lot to find baseball," the second-year member of the Tigers said. "It's a lot hotter here but the baseball is electric."

David Stanley is an outfielder who has all but nailed down his college commitment, yet is holding off on making it public for a couple days.

"I played hockey because everyone else did, but I stopped in ninth grade and now it's baseball until the end of time," he said.

He's made five trips down to Thomas' two, and has become quite the judge of culture, particularly food-wise.

"It's so much better here — brisket and fried catfish, it's not even close to that back home," he said. "The heat, you have to adjust back and forth. This week isn't bad, really. Last week near Dallas where we played it was 105-110 on a daily basis. It feels cool here, to be honest."

The temperature read 98 degrees at game time Friday. So in spite of what it felt like, literally, he was right.

Nate Petropoulos plays on the 16-under team, It's his first year making this trip. It's his ninth year to play baseball.

"I actually played center in hockey until this year on a lower level, but baseball has been No. 1 for me always," he said. "I've been to four Division I programs on this trip — TCU, Rice, Houston and Sam Houston — and that's been cool. And to be honest, I love the warmth rather than the cold, so this is great."

Brisket seemed to be atop the preferred food item here, but Thomas would just as soon have a shipment of home cooking every now and then.

"Chicken and rice, healthy stuff," he said. "I get sick of the fast food."

There's nothing unusual about the dugout. You're as likely to see someone chomping on gum like any other area team. No moose jerky, for example.

"Really though, baseball's changed a ton in Canada over the years," Byron said. "Social media has been a part of it, giving it more exposure. And we invest a lot of time with them."

Occasionally, parents of players will make the trip to certain locations, but on this day, none were present in front of the photo of DeGrace. The wind might have made it sound like a cheer coming from it, but there wasn't much wind to speak of.

Still it was some solace.

"Some of those guys like him were mentors, if not for us, the kids we have now," Byron said. "We were surrounded by good people early on and 20 years later those relationships are still there."

The 17-under plays at 11:15 a.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday, while the 16-under plays at 6 p.m. Saturday and 3:45 p.m. Sunday, all at Connors State.